Crisis Pregnancy Centers: Faith Centers Operating in Bad Faith

On June 26, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its long-awaited ruling on a California law that required licensed crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) to post information about affordable abortion and contraception services offered by the state. The California law also required unlicensed CPCs to disclose that they were not licensed medical clinics.1 In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that both provisions of the law violated the clinics’ free speech rights under the First Amendment.2 Antiabortion advocates celebrated the decision, as CPCs are designed to intercept women with unintended or “crisis” pregnancies and dissuade them from undergoing abortion,3 and California’s law interfered with this mission.

The moral and legal aspects of abortion have always been hotly contested, and both sides of the ideological divide are entitled to promote their perspective. Crisis pregnancy centers, also known as “pregnancy resource centers” or “pregnancy support centers,” are...